Since joining Mthente, Neil has worked on a wide range of projects, including the development of the “South Africa in Africa: Trade, Investment and Infrastructure” handbook for the Department of Trade and Industry, the development of factsheets for WESGRO, the official Investment and Trade Promotion Agency for the Western Cape, and a handbook on the nature of Angolan trade policy and the roles that various stakeholders – notably business, government and civil society organisations – play in the Angolan EPA trade negotiation process.

Prior to joining Mthente, Neil worked with Professor Thomas Koelble of UCT’s Graduate School of Business on a study of local government performance – focusing on South African municipalities in the Eastern Cape and Western Cape. This involved extensive research profiling eighteen municipalities, with a focus on socio-economic circumstances, municipal finances, institutional organisation, local economic development (LED) and service delivery.

Neil also has experience in the management and supervision of focused surveys, having worked together with researchers from the World Bank on two separate surveys of the transport industry in South Africa – the World Bank’s Trucking Industry Survey in Cape Town and the Cape Town Transport Module of the World Bank’s Enterprise Survey in South Africa – in which he performed the role of project supervisor for the UCT team of researchers charged with the implementation of the surveys.

Neil has also published economic research in the form of articles in the following peer-reviewed journals: Journal of Development Perspectives and the South African Journal of International Affairs; together with a recent article in the AfricaGrowth Agenda on the impact of the global financial crisis in Africa.